Entropion is a genetic condition in which a portion of the eyelid is inverted or folded inward. This can cause an eyelash or hair to irritate and scratch the surface of the eye, leading to corneal ulceration or perforation. It can also cause dark-colored scar tissue to build up over the wound (pigmentary keratitis). These factors may cause a decrease or loss of vision.

Entropion is fairly common in dogs and is seen in a wide variety of breeds, including short-nosed breeds, giant breeds, and sporting breeds. Entropion is almost always diagnosed around the time a puppy reaches its first birthday. Conscientious dog breeders will have their breeding stock certified free of this common congenital breeding defect found in many breeds of dogs.

Murmurs are extra heart vibrations that are produced as a result of a disturbance in the blood flow -- enough, in fact, to produce audible noise. Often, the murmurs are classified according to a variety of characteristics, including their timing. Systolic murmurs, for example, occur when the heart muscle contracts; diastolic murmurs occur when the heart muscle relaxes between beats; and continuous and to-and-fro murmurs occur throughout all or most of the cardiac cycle. Conscientious dog breeders will have their breeding stock certified free of this common congenital breeding defect found in many breeds of dogs.

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What us a correct bit in Dogs?

Canine Dentition: Adult dogs have 42 permanent teeth - (20 upper and 22 lower teeth)
Puppies have 28 baby (deciduous) teeth - (14 upper and 14 lower teeth)
Puppies should have 28 temporary teeth that erupt at about 3-4 weeks of age. They will eventually have 42 permanent adult teeth that begin to emerge at about 3-4 months of age. As puppies, there are 14 upper and 14 lower puppy teeth. Puppies do not have any of the molars or premolar 1.

The chewing forces in the dog have been estimated to be 300 to 800 psi (pounds per square inch) as passive bite force, and with a sudden localized bite force when snapping the jaws shut of as much as 30,000 to 80,000 psi.

There are 4 types of teeth with different functions:

Incisors - used for cutting and nibbling food, scooping, picking up objects and grooming; these are the front teeth situated directly in between the canines; in adults and puppies there are 6 upper and 6 lower all in a row; the center two incisors are usually somewhat smaller and the others get larger as they move out and away from the center.

Canines - used for holding and tearing prey/food, slashing and tearing when fighting and as a cradle for the tongue; these are the large fangs; the lower canines lock in position in front of the upper canines; the canines are situated directly between the incisors and premolars; in adults and puppies there are two upper and two lower canines, one upper and lower on each side of the jaw.

Premolars - used for cutting, holding, shearing, carrying and breaking food into small pieces; these teeth are situated between the canines and molars; puppies do not have P1 teeth, only P2, P3, P4; adults have 8 premolars on the top and 8 on the bottom, 4 on each side of the upper and lower jaws.

Molars - used for grinding food into small pieces with flat occlusal tables; the molars are situated behind the premolars and are the last teeth in the back of the jaw; puppies do not have molars; adults have 4 molars on the top, two on each side of the upper jaw and 6 molars on the bottom, 3 on each side of the lower jaw.

Wolves likely were domesticated by European hunter-gatherers more than 18,000 years ago and gradually evolved into dogs that became household pets, UCLA life scientists report.

"We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs, ancient European wolves were directly related to them," said Robert Wayne, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA's College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research. "This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found."

The UCLA researchers' genetic analysis is published Nov. 15 in the journal Science and featured on the journal's cover.

In related research last May, Wayne and his colleagues reported at the Biology of Genomes meeting in New York the results of their comparison of the complete nuclear genomes of three recent wolf breeds (from the Middle East, East Asia and Europe), two ancient dog breeds and the boxer dog breed.

"We analyzed those six genomes with cutting-edge approaches and found that none of those wolf populations seemed to be closest to domestic dogs," Wayne said. "We thought one of them would be, because they represent wolves from the three possible centers of dog domestication, but none was. All the wolves formed their own group, and all the dogs formed another group."

The UCLA biologists also hypothesized at that conference that a now-extinct population of wolves was more directly related to dogs.

For the current study in Science, the researchers studied 10 ancient "wolf-like" animals and eight "dog-like" animals, mostly from Europe. These animals were all more than 1,000 years old, most were thousands of years old, and two were more than 30,000 years old.

The biologists studied the mitochondrial DNA of the animals, which is abundant in ancient remains. (Mitochondria are tiny sub-cellular structures with their own small genome.) By comparing this ancient mitochondrial DNA with the modern mitochondrial genomes of 77 domestic dogs, 49 wolves and four coyotes, the researchers determined that the domestic dogs were genetically grouped with ancient wolves or dogs from Europe -- not with wolves found anywhere else in the world or even with modern European wolves. Dogs, they concluded, derived from ancient wolves that inhabited Europe and are now extinct.

Wayne said that that the domestication of predatory wolves likely occurred among ancient hunter-gatherer groups rather than as part of humans' development of sedentary, agricultural-based communities.

"The wolf is the first domesticated species and the only large carnivore humans ever domesticated," Wayne said. "This always seemed odd to me. Other wild species were domesticated in association with the development of agriculture and then needed to exist in close proximity to humans. This would be a difficult position for a large, aggressive predator. But if domestication occurred in association with hunter-gatherers, one can imagine wolves first taking advantage of the carcasses that humans left behind -- a natural role for any large carnivore -- and then over time moving more closely into the human niche through a co-evolutionary process."

The idea of wolves following hunter-gatherers also helps to explain the eventual genetic divergence that led to the appearance of dogs, he said. Wolves following the migratory patterns of these early human groups would have given up their territoriality and would have been less likely to reproduce with resident territorial wolves. Wayne noted that a group of modern wolves illustrates this process.

"We have an analog of this process today, in the only migratory population of wolves known existing in the tundra and boreal forest of North America," he said. "This population follows the barren-ground caribou during their thousand-kilometer migration. When these wolves return from the tundra to the boreal forest during the winter, they do not reproduce with resident wolves there that never migrate. We feel this is a model for domestication and the reproductive divergence of the earliest dogs from wild wolves.

"We know also that there were distinct wolf populations existing tens of thousands of years ago," Wayne added. "One such wolf, which we call the megafaunal wolf, preyed on large game such as horses, bison and perhaps very young mammoths. Isotope data show that they ate these species, and the dog may have been derived from a wolf similar to these ancient wolves in the late Pleistocene of Europe."

In research published in the journal nature in 2010, Wayne and colleagues reported that dogs seem to share more genetic similarity with living Middle Eastern gray wolves than with any other wolf population, which suggested a Middle East origin for modern dogs. The new genetic data have convinced him otherwise.

"When we previously found some similarity between Middle Eastern wolves and domestic dogs, that similarity, we are now able to show, likely was the result of interbreeding between dog and wolves during dog history. It does not necessarily suggest an origin in the Middle East," Wayne said. "This alternative hypothesis, in retrospect, is one that we should have considered more closely. As hunter-gatherers moved around the globe, their dogs trailing behind probably interbred with wolves."

Wayne considers the new genetic data "persuasive" but said they need to be confirmed with an analysis of genetic sequences from the nucleus of the cell (roughly 2 billion base pairs) -- a significantly larger sample than that found in mitochondrial DNA (approximately 20,000 base pairs). This is challenging because the nuclear DNA of ancient remains tends to become degraded.

While Wayne plans to pursue this follow-up research, he said he does not expect a nuclear genome analysis to change the central finding. However, he said, it will fill in more of the details.

"This is not the end-story in the debate about dog domestication, but I think it is a powerful argument opposing other hypotheses of origin," he said.

There is a scientific debate over when dogs were domesticated and whether it was linked with the development of agriculture fewer than 10,000 years ago, or whether it occurred much earlier. In the new Science research, Wayne and his colleagues estimate that dogs were domesticated between 18,000 and 32,000 years ago.

Co-authors on the Science paper include Olaf Thalmann, a former postdoctoral scholar in Wayne's laboratory who is currently the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Finland's University of Turku; Daniel Greenfield, a former technician in Wayne's laboratory; Francesc López-Giráldez, a former graduate student in Wayne's laboratory who is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Yale University; Adam Freedman, a former postdoctoral scholar in Wayne's laboratory; Rena Schweizer, a current UCLA graduate student in Wayne's laboratory; Klaus Koepfli, a former postdoctoral scholar in Wayne's laboratory; and Jennifer Leonard, who earned her doctorate from UCLA.

Approximately 80 percent of dog breeds are modern breeds that evolved in the last few hundred years, Wayne said. But some dog breeds have ancient histories that go back thousands of years.

Wolves have been in the Old World for hundreds of thousands of years. The oldest dogs from the archaeological record come from Europe and Western Russia. A dog from Belgium dates back approximately 36,000 years, and a group of dogs from Western Russia is approximately 15,000 years old, Wayne said.

Summary: Analysis of DNA extracted from a fossil tooth recovered in southern Siberia confirms that the tooth belonged to one of the oldest known ancestors of the modern dog, and is described in research published March 6 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anna Druzhkova from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Russian Federation, and colleagues from other institutions.

Human domestication of dogs predates the beginning of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, but when modern dogs emerged as a species distinct from wolves is still unclear. Although some previous studies have suggested that this separation of domestic dogs and wolves occurred over 100,000 years ago, the oldest known fossils of modern dogs are only about 36,000 years old.

The new research published today evaluates the relationship of a 33,000 year old Siberian fossil to modern dogs and wolves based on DNA sequence. The researchers found that this fossil, named the 'Altai dog' after the mountains where it was recovered, is more closely related to modern dogs and prehistoric canids found on the American continents than it is to wolves.

They add, ""These results suggest a more ancient history of the dog outside the Middle East or East Asia, previously thought to be the centers where dogs originated."

Summary: A genetic study has found that small domestic dogs probably originated in the Middle East more than 12,000 years ago. Researchers have traced the evolutionary history of the IGF1 gene, finding that the version of the gene that is a major determinant of small size probably originated as a result of the domestication of the Middle Eastern gray wolf.

A genetic study has found that small domestic dogs probably originated in the Middle East more than 12,000 years ago. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology traced the evolutionary history of the IGF1 gene, finding that the version of the gene that is a major determinant of small size probably originated as a result of the domestication of the Middle Eastern gray wolf.

Melissa Gray and Robert Wayne, from the University of California, Los Angeles, led a team of researchers who surveyed a large sample of gray wolf populations. She said, "The mutation for small body size post-dates the domestication of dogs. However, because all small dogs possess this variant of IGF1, it probably arose early in their history. Our results show that the version of the IGF1 gene found in small dogs is closely related to that found in Middle Eastern wolves and is consistent with an ancient origin in this region of small domestic dogs."

Previous archeological work in the Middle East has unearthed the remains of small domestic dogs dating to 12,000 years ago. Sites in Belgium, Germany and Western Russia contain older remains (13,000-31,000 years ago), but these are of larger dogs. These findings support the hypothesis put forward by Gray and colleagues that small body size evolved in the Middle East.

Reduction in body size is a common feature of domestication and has been seen in other domesticated animals including cattle, pigs and goats. According to Gray, "Small size could have been more desirable in more densely packed agricultural societies, in which dogs may have lived partly indoors or in confined outdoor spaces."

“In the beginning, our puppy was very affectionate and just licked us, now he is starting to play very rough with us as soon as we walk in the door. Although no one has really been injured, he is grabbing our hands with his mouth so hard it is starting to hurt.”

“When I went into the kitchen, I found that my dog knocked over the trashcan and was eating the garbage. I went over to scold him and he growled at me. I thought he loved me. Why is he now growling at me?”

“Our dog loves us and is sweet most of the time, but any time that we try to make him do something we want him to do, he snaps at us.”

Are these all “bad” dogs? No. What all of the above dogs have in common is that they have all started on their way to be “alpha” dogs. Even though the families love them very much, these dogs are following nature’s guide for becoming leaders of their packs. These dogs have easily learned that with a little assertiveness, they can be the real boss of the family!

Here are a few “dog” body language signs to determine if you have an “alpha” type dog.

1. Your dog jumps up on you or even puts his foot on your leg or on top of your foot, he is clearly telling you he is a higher pack member.

2. If, when you are walking him, your dog puts the leash in his mouth, he is telling you he is a higher pack member.

3. If he is dominant over food or toys, he is telling you that he is a higher pack member.

4. If he forces you to pet him frequently, he is telling you that he is a higher pack member.

Steve Kruse has a great knowledge of dog training and canine behavior.

All animals have prewritten internal programs, just as migratory birds, dogs or canines?? have prewritten social pack order programs. Similar to the military or corporate business structures with people, all canines must clearly see where they rank in your family pack.

The leader of the pack is known as the "Alpha" or supreme boss. The big cheese of the pack is the first to eat, getting the best of everything when and where they want. The "Alpha" may be a male or female. The "Alpha" forces their demands on the rest of the pack through force and intimidation.

Many dogs are very comfortable being lower members of your “pack” or family. They always listen to all human members of the pack. Other dogs desire to have more say in the pack and will start not to listen to certain members of your family. The dog generally will not listen to members of the pack who do not display confidence in themselves.

Many times we unintentionally tell our dogs that we want them to take over leadership of the pack from us. We do this by treating the dog as an equal. We sit on the floor with them, we feed them before we eat, and when we take the dog for a walk – we let the dog go where he wants. We think that by doing these things, he or she will realize how good they have it and how much we love them. In reality, it is just the opposite. It is like spoiling the child and the child then treating the parent with disrespect. Ironically, the smaller they are, the more that we tend to spoil and baby the dog. This makes the dog feel like he or she is expected to be the dominate one and that we want them to boss us around through aggression.

Many people admire many of the characteristics of an alpha dog. They are normally smarter than the average dog, they are affectionate when they want something, their air of confidence makes them look very majestic, and 95% of the time they make us very proud. It is the 5% of the time that they suddenly turn into the worst dogs in the world!

In the animal kingdom, the leader of the pack does not have to answer to anyone. When the “alpha” is forced to do something that they do not want to do, they will normally show their dislike for the situation through one or more of the following domino or stepped levels.

1. Intense stare.

2. Tensing of body language.

3. Bristling of hair

4. Growl.

5. Bite.

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Just as the rattlesnake shakes the rattle at the end of its tail before it bites, all dogs go through the following five steps before they bite. Dogs never skip one of these steps. They might go through the steps very quickly, but never the less they still go through each step.

In Step 1: the dog must first see what he or she is targeting.

Advancing to Step 2: the dog will wrinkle his or her forehead and all of the muscles of the dog’s body will tense up. During this stage, the dog’s body will be very stiff looking.

Going into Step 3: the dog’s body releases the adrenaline, the hair will start to bristle or stand along the dog’s neck and back area. There are times when the bristling of hair is more noticeable than others. But with each and every case it does occur.

In Step 4: The dog will growl. Although there are times when the growl may not be audible from a distance, if you would hold a stethoscope or microphone to the dog’s chest -- you would clearly hear the growling.

And finally, the bite of Step 5.

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It is important to first see and understand the problem before you can start to properly deal with and/or correct the problem. If you feel that you might have a possible problem with your dog, then you most probably do have a problem – but you're trying to convince yourself that everything is still OK. Even if the dog is good with most of the family, everything is not OK. Let’s make it truly OK for everyone in the family by first acknowledging that there is a partial problem and that the entire family wants to work together to correct it.

The dog’s proper place should only be at the bottom of the pack. Otherwise, the dog will most probably bite those family members that the dog feels are equal or lower than the dog, sooner or later!

IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO BECOME THE “ALPHA”

All animals sense that humans are superior. Furthermore, your dog knows that its very existence is dependent on you. It is you that has the most powerful position in the pack. The ace cards are in your hand. You probably never knew the power that you already possess. It is now time that you realize it, understand it, and most importantly--use it!!

Remember that nature’s language is very simple and universal in between species. In nature, each living creature is evaluated as either predator or prey (eat or be eaten). Although this law of nature might be considered to be cruel or wrong by human standards, animals do not have “politically correct” viewpoints. The most powerful and true law in nature is “Might make right.”

An “alpha” leader never stares down a lower pack member unless he or she is challenging the lower pack member to a fight. So if a friend, relative, neighbor, or co-worker of yours tells you that you need to “stare down” your dog to show him who is the boss—you now know not to listen to anything they tell you about dog training from this point on!!

Another very important fact is that if two dogs put their legs around each other’s neck or chest area, they are getting ready to fight! Yes, that’s right! When you hug your dog, you are telling him or her that you want to fight them in their language. Watch a dog when it’s owner hugs them; they look at them as if to say, “You can’t be serious. I know you don’t want to fight me. I think you’re a little bit confused.”

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When a pack member licks the inner ear and belly of another pack member, this is what a dog considers as hugging and kissing. This greeting process shows that you are the caregiver and protector of the pack. No, you do not have to lick your dog. Merely place your four fingers together forming what is like a large “cow’s” tongue. Then, in a licking type of motion, use your four fingers (held together side by side) as if you were licking your dog’s inner ear area and belly area. Go back and forth between these two areas. Once you stop, the dog will automatically sniff you. They cannot help themselves. It is an instinctual “knee jerk” reaction. They smell you to imprint your scent particles and subconsciously log you in their mind as a higher pack member and caregiver. Remember dogs do not remember by sight, they remember by scent!

Dogs want and need leaders! They are “social” animals and want to be a member of the pack. Because animal language is very simple (black and white), they like strict and clear rules and regulations. Be consistent with your expectations and rules for your dog and pack. Note: How would you feel if the speed limit on the highway would change from day to day—without notice? Understand this concept and use the same rules, each day, every day!!

Dogs read your body language to see if you really mean what you say. For example, if a waiter told you to please move to a different table, but at the same time he was shaking his head from left to right (saying “no” with his body language) would you move to the new table? The answer is most probably “no”, you would stay seated. Likewise, when you tell your dog to come to you, but subconsciously you feel your dog will not come to you, your body language tells him “not” to come to you even though you are calling him. Do not under estimate the power of your body language. If you truly feel you’re the boss, your body language will clearly show it like a neon light.

Imagine that you are playing an actors or actress's role in a play or movie. Truly believe yourself as performing in the role of a General or leader of the pack. Pretend that you are magical and that your dog has “no choice” and must listen to you. By doing so, your body language will tell your dog that you are not fooling around and he will listen to you. Do not question your own authority, exercise it!! You already have the power—choose to use it!!!

Never give you dog a command without the intent or ability of enforcing. Anticipate that your dog may not follow your command and be immediately prepared to make the dog follow through with your command. By doing so, your dog will immediately sense that you mean what you say, and your dog will surprisingly listen to you!

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It is now time for tough love. Imagine if a person was teaching you technical data pertaining to theory of relativity, but they were speaking to you in Japanese. Would you understand? The answer is no. For you dog to understand, you must communicate in a language that is theirs. Over 99% of your dog’s language is body language. The love of touching, a glance of love that lasts for only half a second and then looks on, shows that you are a strong and confident leader with the dog’s best interest at heart.

Dogs will not follow a questionable leader. Ironically, neither will humans. For all of the goodness and love that you have within you, the greatest love that you can show your dog is that you will not lead them in the wrong direction. You must respect yourself, stand straight, hold your shoulders back, and speak with confidence in order for your dog to respect and follow you. It is not the big battles that you need to win: it is the little daily events!

We are going to start with one of the most basic thought patterns of all dogs, eating. The packs hierarchy is clearly seen by its eating order. The "Alpha" eats first, followed by the second in charge, the third in charge, and so on. It is imperative that your dog sees all of your family members eat their meals first and only after your entire family has finished their desert, and then will the dog's meal be prepared and fed to your dog. Before he eats, make him perform some command like sit or lay down. However, do not give him any command that encourages aggression such as jumping up or barking.

During this transformation pack leadership period, it is very important for all members of the family to pet the dog for only a couple of seconds and then to walk away (without looking back). This also establishes that all of your family members are higher than the dog. Do not let him force you to pet him. Only the leader or alpha of the pack is allowed to do this. Pet him for only 3 seconds and then walk away. Animal language is very simple and clear. That is why this simple exercise works so well.

Wrestling with your dog and playing “tug of war” games tells him that you want him to be a warrior. He feels that you are teaching him this because you want him to be more aggressive and dominant with people, and that you want him to take over leadership of the pack from you – through aggression. In the wild, he would need to develop these skills to defend him and the pack, to kill his food, and to fight for “alpha” dog position for breeding rights. But in our social pack or family environment, he does not have to kill his food—we give it to him. We do not want him running out and biting people—lawsuits! And most of all, we do not want him biting any member of the family to take over leadership of the pack. So immediately stop all “tug of war” and wrestling games, unless you want to live with the terrible consequences.

How about fetch? Throwing the ball or Frisbee hones in your dog’s hunting and killing skills. In the wild he would have to catch and kill the rabbit (fetch) or grab the bird in mid-air (Frisbee) to supply food for his or herself and pack. These games are fine for non-alpha dogs. But if your dog is having an aggression or dominate problem, hold off on these games until you have full control of your dog.

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Where should your dog sleep? The leader of the pack chooses where he or she sleeps and also designates where the rest of the pack is to sleep as well. If you let your dog choose where he or she wants to sleep, you are telling them that they are the leader not you! More importantly, if you let your dog sleep with you, you are setting yourself up for a major aggression problem in over 70% of the cases. So if your dog is currently showing aggression and he or she sleeps with you (or you lay or sit on the floor with the dog), it is now time to stop going down to your dog's level.

In the wild, your dog would sleep in a den. This would be a small area that was dug out under the roots of a tree or under an overhanging rock. It is not spacious. It is barely big enough for the dog to turn around in. Enclosed small areas (like dens) give the dog great security. They like them. Large spacious areas tend to make the dog feel insecure allowing high exposure to attack from predators.

Love, safety, and security are the desires that owners have for their dogs overall health and well-being. It is also what we desire for members of our families. By achieving and maintaining the “alpha” role, you and your family can truly have the best of both worlds: love and respect.

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